About Wapato Valley Bank
The Wapato Valley Mitigation and Conservation Bank is sponsored by Plas Newydd LLC, which is a private, family-owned and managed business since 1941 with a history of successful land management and stewardship of its ecologically diverse 1,628-acre property. The Bank was created as part of the long-term management plan for the farm and will create a truly multi-objective, ecologically sustainable, and economically viable tapestry of land use. The property outside the Wapato Valley Bank will remain as a working landscape of sustainable forestry and compatible agriculture.
Restoration actions will address historical land use management actions that have impacted the Plas Newydd property over the last 175 years. Construction includes primarily “unbuilding”: removing man-made constraints added to the landscape and restoring habitat-forming and maintaining processes that support a broad range of ecological functions. The restoration actions are large-scale, process-based, and self-sustaining to the extent possible given the constraints of a hydro-modified system.
To support this effort, intensive baseline data on over 1,000 acres of diverse lower Columbia River floodplain habitats was collected, analyzed, and synthesized by staff and consulting partners. Project management is through a translational ecology approach. This “big tent” approach, involving input and involvement from “non-scientists” allowed for a deep and thorough understanding of this unique tidal freshwater floodplain ecosystem, and allowed for a more robust restoration design and better ecosystem management decision-making. The restoration will increase habitat quantity, improve habitat quality, and increase habitat diversity and complexity within 876 acres of floodplain habitats that span the aquatic and terrestrial continuum.
